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Monthly Archives: April 2014

It is possible write something so well that it does not need to be edited. This usually occurs only after years of lessons and then, over and above that, the creation of short pieces in an area in which one has significant practice.

In general, however, especially for beginners, editing is important. For most people this begins by being students who have teachers who provide a lot of correction and the introduction of new material.

The next step is often self editing and involvement with groups in which peer criticism in allowed.

A good word of advice about editing: some can be done soon after the first draft – perhaps removing the kinds of errors one has grown best at self-correcting. In general, the more emotional investment that has gone into the creation of the work, the more it will be important to only edit it when one feels more emotional distance from the piece of work. Otherwise, get someone else to edit the thing and then go over it again. Both may well be helpful.

How professional or commercial the piece is also influences patterns of editing behavior.

I have finally managed to learn a few German words relevant to writing professionally. Sometimes, German really is like English although there are words that look the same but have unlike meanings. Recently, online, I have seen these called “false friends” by both Rewboss and the young German of Get Germanized. Unlike myself, both of them are male entities.

Back to the topic of the day: Journalister/in does mean journalist, but Schriftsteller means freelance writer and sounds like children practicing to be ghosts for Halloween in America.

Verlager = publisher. There is no reason one would ever just guess this one correctly – not even for all the money in the world. To help the native speakers of English out there, Verlag sounds like Fur lahg (fur log or fur lag) when said correctly.

Autor and Autorin actually do mean author and authoress. Unlike so many Americans, the English and the Germans are still using more feminine forms of words. As someone strongly in favor of equal rights for women and men – rather than only the rich or only the poor or only one gender etc.. I can’t avoid noticing that when feminists do reviews of ancient language we draw the conclusion that more feminine grammatical forms went with better social conditions for women but for the living generations, the opposite has often been claimed to be the truth. So, there may be a problem with that theory.

Cross cultural understanding. I have learned enough about the Germans “as a people” to know to send them an image someone uploaded of two loaves of bread hollowed out in a manner that left them shaped to be used as ‘house shoes’. I was right that they appreciated this. The cause, if you don’t know is simple: Germans are world masters of multiple types of bread “over 300 breads” and love slippers, but call them ‘house shoes’.

The good news, which is also the bad news, about the Germans is that they tend to speak truthfully. This is does not mean that they never lie, but they emphasize clarity and directness in speech and behavior, as if we were all just work colleagues at all times. The reason this is perceived as bad by foreigners is that it is not polite in many cultures to be so clear and direct. It is good when you really want to know what is going on, but can seem a bit rough.

The English, and apparently also the Austrians have the opposite problem of being so charming and polite at all times, that the truth was so badly sacrificed that often people are not sure if they ever tell the truth, and that it is very difficult to know where one stands with anyone because, well, if it isn’t good, then there has to be an underground movement or high level security for anyone to tell anyone the actual truth.

Americans are inconsistent by comparison, being made from ethnically diverse peoples. With Americans the main thing is to understand that they were all taught to smile big and pretend to be extroverted as much as possible, even if they are shy and miserable. If it seems unnatural – maybe it is. Think loads of sugar…not even in a romantic sense, but more the way teachers have known for decades the way the kids act in the afternoon when they had sweets at the lunch break. The Americans are all on sweets.

The question is simple but is so broad that the answer can take up this entire blog post. The main thing is that writers are literate. No writer ever known in history, so far, was born knowing how to read and write but age 30 it may have become second nature.

Only some writers were able to see it coming during childhood. Many had no idea at all until after they had graduated from university or high school. For some it happened soon after they finished. In such cases it was caused as a response to a job opening. One the person was able to fulfill.

Lots of career writers actually studied as preparation: journalism, communications, marketing and English are all degrees which lend themselves towards jobs as professional writers.

Then there are those who are more like outliers: they submit from someplace rather than writing whatever their boss at the company told them to with colleagues at the office. Some of those people actually work in another part of the writing business. Stories of veteran journalists who hope to write their own book someday are not that unusual. I have read stories of how someone working for a publisher is asked to write a book for the company after working there for 5 years. The author gets to be listed as the author and the publisher pays well and everything. I read about a man who was in an IT department and was commissioned to write an actual book. Wow. Meanwhile, others write for any length of time and then spend huge amounts of energy trying to get their short stories or novels or articles etc. accepted for publication in paying markets.

In general writers are people. They can be as flaky or as down to Earth and sensible as the rest of the population. Even though I write professionally myself, I don’t even know what the stereotypes of writers are.

Most of you, if you are more into certain scenes have heard of branding. Many of you may also have heard stories of bands coming up with their name or writing songs on napkins at diners or some other very humble piece of paper. Well, I felt I needed to come up with something.

Generationally, I was a teen during the Space Age which could also have been called the Pathologically Enormous Amount of Nuclear Bombs as well as nuclear power plants Age, only that sounds so clumsy, they just started calling it MAD “Mutually Assured Destruction”. And so what – the first generation for which humanity had the power to completely annhiliate ourselves all at once. Then, come to find out, it was all a perverse trick, and the real danger came from HAIR SPRAY – hello?! Seriously, this year I did research online and read that as long as we stay on track the ozone hole should heal in 2050: The effing HAIR SPRAY DEATH HOLE!!! WTF!

Thankfully, the Cold War ended over 25 years ago and least some bombs were dismantled in our now post Chernobyl and post- Fukushima world which we all know in a flash of insight Mothra and Godzilla movies had forewarned us about.

Uranian Fiction is not that destructive and I hope it is not evil, but it is meant to be naturally intense and experimental, sometimes avant garde, other times mainstream. The idea is that even when novels, or short fiction etc by me are released through whichever means, that their umbrella brand is Uranian Fiction.

Working writers come in many different types. It can be pretty easy to lose perspective, as a writer. I have met writers who read all about it or followed a clear higher ed program and got into the industry that way: a steady day job version of being a professional writer. I have heard of a lot of them to.

The actual job description depends a lot on exactly which type of writer it is. Other factors, such as age and stage of life can also be very important.

There are brave and intrepid people in the real world who literally create their own jobs. Often, such people still work at other peoples’ companies, but they go to a business leader and sell themselves and the roles they have devised. I find that almost awe inspiring and daunting and I do not see myself as being someone like that. I am aware that some people can actually do that.

Others are even more wild and start businesses or change companies or found organizations and activities of that nature.

In such cases one can feel as if divination or a business degree maybe needed just to find out what the job description really is. Here are some fundamental basics: write and submit strictly to paying markets through editors, or else write, edit, work out a way to be published, then market and sell the published version of the works. Which is easier may depend on the individuality of the writer. Maybe none of it is. Maybe half the job comes easily but the other half is hard. Maybe a writer ends up having to do tasks to make it happen that had not been anticipated….Hadn’t realized it was in the job description.